Ephesians 2:1-10

Thank you very much, Alistair. Good morning, everyone. Good morning here in the hall and good morning to you watching from home or from wherever you may be.

It's a joy to be with you this morning. And please do keep your Bibles open at that passage that Alistair just read to us there in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

One of the additional, possibly unrecognized physical manifestations of COVID is going to be larger ears.

We're all going to end up with cauliflower ears with these masks that we're having to wear.

I'm very conscious of the fact that my ears are coming out like that.

My wife actually said that she quite prefers the mask.

She thinks it brings its own air of mystique and it might be a bit of an improvement me wearing a mask,

but it's definitely having an impact on the lugs. They're getting larger the more I wear the mask.

So that's probably in years to come. They're going to do studies into this.

Either our hearing will be improved or dissipated through it. Certainly it doesn't improve the looks, I don't think.

But there we are. I get to take mine off. You're stuck with yours for a little while longer.

But of course, there is a serious side to where we are at the moment.

The government's around the United Kingdom today worrying about the possibility of another COVID spike.

But I think we need to issue another health warning, a more serious one this morning.

There is the potential of there being a spiritual pandemic that has come as a result of the physical pandemic.

There is something that seems to be affecting those who appear to be committed Christians.

And this is impacting, it's not killing them physically, it's not affecting them physically,

but it might be doing significant spiritual damage.

I've heard from pastors all over the UK and even some further flung places around the world

who tell me that some of their church family are not in a big hurry to return again to physical assembly,

to being together, even with the restrictions that we have at the moment.

They're just a sort of a deterioration in the desire of people to get there.

And it's not for the reasons we might expect.

It's not for the kind of good reasons that there might be those in a certain age group

or with some form of compromised health that might make it more dangerous and difficult for them to gather,

although amazingly every provision is made to make this safer than almost anything.

But it's not for any of these reasons.

It's because, and I know nothing about your own situation.

Nobody has told me anything about your situation.

So I'm not trying to be smart when I say this.

I'm just telling you about an observation I'm making around the country and around the world.

It's because that in a relatively short period, when we weren't able physically to gather,

for some of our brothers and sisters, the Sunday habit has been displaced by other habits.

And those in spiritual danger now would say, actually, they prefer just to watch online from home.

It's a lot less hassle than having to get the family ready and get down to the hall and get a parking place

and get them in and get them marshalled and get them to keep their masks on and all that kind of stuff.

They report that they're enjoying a huge time saving because they can budget for maybe an hour or just less than an hour

for viewing an online meeting.

And they might not even do it on Sunday.

They might bank it and do it some night lying in bed on the iPad before they fall asleep.

So that ticks the box without them having to get on with all that's involved in being with the people of God.

And it frees them up to do other things.

They suddenly realize they have a whole extra day in their week that they didn't used to have on a conventional Christian Sunday.

And they can get so much more done or they can just have a pajama day.

Now who doesn't like a pajama day?

And I would admit I've had to catch myself on with this myself.

I certainly found that I missed being with my church family during lockdown.

But it was amazing how attractive on a Saturday the thought of a leisurely breakfast on a Sunday morning was.

And the fact that we were having our lunch at half past one instead of three o'clock.

It really was lovely.

And of course there's nothing wrong with enjoying the upside of that very weird season we went through during the peak of lockdown this year.

But brothers and sisters what's happening is that with some in the church families and it might be you and it might be me and it might be people in my church family and it might be people in your church family.

What is happening to some in our church families the world over is that the Lord Jesus and his day and his word and his family are being devalued.

And that's happening because of a sight problem.

That's happening because we're losing sight of the wonder of the Lord Jesus.

We're losing sight of the Lord and what he's done for us historically and what he's doing in us as his people, his church in the present day.

The word is being choked and making it unfruitful because other desires are coming in.

Where it once seemed to have been bearing fruit in our lives.

Now the good news is that none of this takes the Lord Jesus by surprise.

He warns us about this doesn't he?

In the passage I've just quoted to you about other things coming in, other desires choking the word and making it unfruitful.

He warns us for example in Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Or he warns us in Matthew chapter 24 verse 12 that because of lawlessness, the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.

Matthew 24:12

So he pleads with his people.

He reaches out to his people.

He says be warned about this.

Be warned about your love growing cold.

And I don't think Paul would be at all surprised to know that it's possible for Christians who know and love the Lord to begin to lose sight of the Lord and lose sight of what he's done for us.

A sight that dominates our lives.

And lose sight of what he is doing among us.

A sight that ought to order our lives.

I don't think Paul would be surprised that that is beginning to happen.

Because he prays for his readers in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 16.

Ephesians 1:16

Have a look at it with me.

He says I don't cease to give thanks for you.

Remembering you my prayers.

And here's what he prays.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom.

Oh that he would make us wise.

And revelation in the knowledge of him.

That you'd increasingly know him.

Verse 18.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.

In other words, having the eyes of your hearts with their cataracts removed so that the light, the truth, the reality of the Lord Jesus and his gospel floods your life.

The lamp of the body is the eye.

Your heart has eyes.

It sees.

It assesses.

It appreciates.

It longs for.

And here's Paul praying that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened.

That we would know the hope to which he has called us.

And the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

And the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe.

See when the eyes of our hearts have cataracts removed.

And see to focus again on ultimate reality like that.

When our eyes are open to see the endless hope.

And the glorious wealth.

And the immeasurable power that belongs to our God.

And that he deploys for his church.

Then nothing else in the world takes the place of that treasure in our lives.

And we're safe again.

We're safe again.

Nothing else comes in to displace his lordship.

And it is so that our eyes can be freshly and constantly enlightened.

That Paul then goes on in the chapter that we are looking at today.

In chapter 2.

To show us the very things that we so easily.

And so disastrously potentially lose sight of.

So that's what we're looking at today.

The first 10 verses of chapter 2.

And that's why we're looking at it.

We're sitting in behind Paul.

He was praying for the Ephesians.

That their eyes would be illumined.

That their eyes would be enlightened.

That light would flood into the eyes of their hearts.

And it would change them again.

And that's what I want for myself.

And that's why we're looking at this today.

Now how are we going to tackle it?

Well twice in these verses.

Once in verse 5.

Once in verse 8.

Paul writes the phrase.

By grace you have been saved.

So let's pray that the eyes of our hearts will be freshly enlightened.

As we think about what this means to be saved by grace.

And there are three main things I want to draw your attention to this morning.

Number one.

Why we need saved.

Number two.

How we are saved.

And number three.

Why we are saved.

So let's look at the first of these together.

Why we need saved.

So you might be a Christian listening to this.

Many of you are I'm sure.

You might not be a Christian listening to this.

So why do we need saved?

Why this talk in the Bible?

Well there are three answers.

In this passage at the beginning of chapter 2.

The first of them is this.

We need saved because number one.

We were dead.

Chapter 2 verse 1.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you used to walk.

I'm using ESV.

I know you read from NIV.

Transgressions.

Trespasses.

We'll come to that in a moment.

But here's the big idea.

Why do we need saved?

Because we were dead.

Now we talk about dead in an unusual way, don't we?

We sometimes go.

You may have been to a restaurant during lockdown when the restrictions lifted.

And had a nice meal.

Maybe paid half price for it.

And then next day you're talking to someone on the phone or on yet another Zoom call.

And they say, did you go to that restaurant last night?

And you say, yeah.

And did you have a good time?

Yeah.

And what was it like?

Well it was a bit dead.

It was a bit dead.

Now a restaurant can be a bit dead.

A bit quiet maybe.

That's what we mean by that.

But a person can't be a bit dead.

The doctor doesn't go to the bedside and do what he does and then say, well he's a bit dead.

Paul says, you were dead.

Not just a bit dead.

You were dead.

Not poorly.

Not, you know, spiritually struggling a little bit.

No, dead.

Not could be better.

No, dead.

Not suboptimal.

No, dead.

We had no knowledge of our spiritual condition and no concern for our spiritual condition and no power to improve our spiritual condition.

We were dead.

That's why we needed saved.

Now this is spiritual death, not physical death.

It's death to God.

Just no link there at all.

No connection at all.

Just as if he doesn't exist.

As though we exist totally without him.

Dead to him.

Dead to all that he is to us and all that he's done for us.

Dead.

And this condition of spiritual death, it does point to us being inactive and unresponsive towards God.

But it points beyond that.

It points us downright towards us being downright offensive to God.

We were dead in our trespasses or transgressions in the NIV and sins.

Trespasses.

Transgression is when we deliberately cross a set of boundaries.

I remember as a young boy, my mom and dad taking us on holiday down to that beautiful town in the Thames, Henley.

And as we walked along the banks of the River Thames, just a few days after the regatta, if I remember rightly, and the schools were still in.

That was always a big treat for me being in holiday in England when the schools were still on, when I was running about enjoying the freedom of that.

And we saw a guy in a school uniform sitting under a tree.

And we got talking to him and my dad said to him, is this part of the school grounds?

And he said, no, no, I'm out of bounds.

He said it in a much more posh voice than that.

But he said, no, I'm out of bounds.

And I thought, age seven, I thought, oh, I can't wait to go back to school and go out of bounds.

That sounds really, really cool.

Made it sound attractive to me.

But the whole of humanity is out of bounds.

Since the Garden of Eden.

That's what transgression is.

That's what trespass is.

And sin is not quite the same.

So there is an active part of this and there is an inactive part of this.

And the inactive part is this idea that we just fall short of the mark.

That God has said, this is how you should live.

And we just always fall short of it.

So these two things, transgressions, trespasses, and sins, point to the activity that comes with this spiritual death.

That's why we needed saved.

Number one, we were dead.

Number two, we were duped.

Still in verse two, here we are.

Dead in the trespasses and sins of which we once walked, following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air.

The spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

Now have a look at this with me.

Because if our deadness was just described by verse three,

we might get the impression that we were at least enjoying our existence.

At least we were enjoying our complete independence of thought and action.

We were really doing what we wanted to do.

We were dead to God, took everything he had to give us and ignored him.

But at least we were carrying out all our passions.

Everything that we desired in the body and mind, we just did.

If that was the only description of what it was like to be a dead person walking,

spiritually speaking, then we might get the impression,

well, at least there was some real liberty there.

And of course, that's a huge attraction to people in not being a Christian.

One of the reasons our friends that we're trying to reach with the gospel

are very suspicious and don't want to get too close to this is

they think they'll lose this amazing freedom they have.

But it's a complete illusion.

We are, verse two, following the course of this world.

Following.

Just zoning in on it.

Following the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

People who celebrate and cherish their apparent freedom

from having to love and serve God

are blinded to the reality that they're actually,

according to verse two,

they're actually enslaved followers

of demonic spiritual currents in the world.

Whether they realize it or not,

they're just like,

they're just following the current of the river

in the way that dead fish follows the current of the river.

They follow the course of the world in rebellion to God.

And whether the world, meaning not the planet,

but the whole system,

the whole of humanity instinctively ignoring our maker

and rebelling against them,

whether the world realizes it or not,

we do not live like this entirely by ourselves.

It may appear to suit us at times,

but we nonetheless take the lead of another.

We are being led.

And we are duped.

And we are following a current.

And we are following a spirit of disobedience

who is as prevalent as the air we breathe.

What was it?

I was thinking about it coming through in the car this morning.

Was it the Hollies who wrote the song,

Sometimes All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe?

And the devil, that's all he needs,

is the air that we breathe.

Because anywhere there is air,

he can be there.

And he can be there with a spirit of disobedience.

He can be there polluting the air, as it were, spiritually.

And we're all rightly concerned about air pollution and air quality.

But nobody cares about this.

That there is a spiritual enemy of the human soul,

that there is a spiritual enemy of God Almighty

who pollutes the planet and pollutes the universe

and pollutes the air, as it were, spiritually speaking.

So that disobeying God is as natural and comfortable

and almost as essential to life as breathing.

And the only clue that we're given here,

that we're not as free as we think we are,

in verse 3,

comes into view when we take stock of the havoc

that our freedom unintentionally causes us.

Why do we so invariably hurt our loved ones

as we pursue our own agenda,

as we do our own thing,

not believing that we're being duped by anyone?

Why is it then,

if we're not duped,

if we're not following someone else,

if we're not marching to the beat of another

drama, demonic influence,

why then is it that doing our own thing

involves hurting our loved ones

and often harming ourselves?

That's the clue that we're not really achieving what we want,

that we're not really just doing what we want,

that we are in the thrall of another.

And to be as successful as he has been,

Satan needs to be prepared himself,

not to be believed in.

And that's perfect for him.

He masquerades as an angel of light.

He doesn't need people to believe in him

for him to be most effective.

Humanity is dead to God,

duped by Satan,

hopelessly in his throne.

That's why we need saved.

We need saved because we're dead,

because we're duped,

thirdly because we're doomed.

Verse,

the very end of verse 3,

we were by nature children of wrath

like the rest of mankind.

We were,

the believers.

This is meant to be opening our eyes

to something glorious God has done.

And this element of our desperate need

to be saved takes us beyond this life,

however it may work out for us,

and into the eternity that lies ahead

of every human soul,

either cut off from God in hell

or with him in glory.

And Paul underscores the offense

of our rebellion against the God

who's given us life and breath

and everything else.

And he points us to the catastrophic impact

of our deadness to him,

of our trespasses,

of our sins.

It means that we're children of wrath.

That doesn't just mean we've got a temper on us.

That may or may not be true.

It means that we inherit

the just, pure,

undeniably deserved wrath of God upon us.

His wrath is not an outburst

of his bad temper.

His wrath is his,

part of his perfection.

It is his permanent,

steady state,

invariable,

settled hostility

to the rebellion

against him of those

to whom he has given life

and everything.

And because we've rebelled

against an infinitely glorious being,

our sin is infinitely offensive

and grievous.

It is an infinite crime

and therefore the final experience

of that wrath upon us

is infinite punishment.

More dreadful than we can even think of.

And we are the children of wrath.

NIV, I think,

says the objects of wrath.

We attract his wrath

in the way that a magnet

attracts iron filings.

Or a way,

in the way that a friend of mine

seems to attract wasps.

Friend of ours,

she hates wasps,

but she just seems to attract them.

We are wrath magnets, friends.

This is part of the wonder

of the gospel.

We are wrath magnets

and we wouldn't even know about that.

We wouldn't believe in it.

We wouldn't care about it

unless God told us about it

in his word as he does.

Now, it doesn't get any darker than this

in understanding what we are

basically like dead

and duped

and doomed

to face the wrath of God.

Paul wants our eyes

to be open to this afresh.

Why we need to be saved,

there's the answer.

We're dead.

We're duped.

We're doomed.

Now then,

that's why we need saved.

How are we saved?

Well, there could hardly be

a greater contrast.

Such a blessing

to get out of the tunnel

into the daylight,

the stunning daylight

of verse 4.

But,

God being rich in mercy,

because of the great love

with which he loved us,

pause there.

There's the first answer

to how we're saved.

The first thing to notice

is that we're saved

because God treated us

with love.

He treated us with love.

His love of wrath magnets,

sinful, ungrateful,

rebellious,

dismissive sinners

against him.

His love for us

is the engine room

that powered our salvation.

He is rich in mercy.

Notice verse 4.

He's rich in mercy

because of the great love

with which he loved us.

There's so much in that for us.

So he loved us

and he loved us

with a great love.

And that great love

resulted in

glorious riches of mercy

towards us.

We are saved

because he has the capacity

to infinitely love

those who

infinitely

disrespect

and hate him.

How are we saved?

Number one,

God treated us

with love.

Number two,

God gifted us

with life.

Verse 5.

Even when we were dead.

We've talked about that.

In our trespass.

We've talked about that.

He made us alive

together with Christ.

By grace

you have been saved.

How are we saved?

He treated us

with love.

He gifted us

with new life.

New spiritual life.

And he did it

by grace.

I've already pointed out

that Paul uses

this phrase again

in verse 8.

By grace

you've been saved.

But it's as though

with his forensic mind,

his amazing forensic mind,

led by the Holy Spirit.

He wants us

to understand

when I talk about grace,

this is the picture

you've got to have in mind.

And he does that

by the language

and the imagery

that he's used

about our deadness

and our dupedness,

not that there is

such a word,

and our doomedness,

not that there is

such a word.

But they're the pictures

he uses

to make it crystal clear

that we are saved

entirely by God's initiative.

It's a thing

that God did

for the dead

and duped

and doomed.

That's what God's

grace is.

It's the unearned,

undeserved action

of God

to treat us

in the opposite way

to how we would be.

He would be

entirely justified

in treating us.

And it's necessarily,

entirely at his instigation.

It has to be

because we were dead

entirely by his execution.

It couldn't be more clear,

could it?

When we were dead,

he did something

to make us alive.

That's grace.

We didn't long for him

until he awoke

that longing within us.

So you might be thinking,

I don't know about that.

I think there was something

in me that began

to reach out to God

and then he responded

to that.

No, it's the other way around.

Yes, you did begin

to long for him.

Something did awaken in you,

but it wasn't you

that awakened it.

We didn't feel

the conviction of our sin

until he blessed us

with that conviction

by the work of his Holy Spirit.

We didn't decide

to follow Jesus

in and of ourselves.

We were dead.

We were duped.

We were doomed.

He did the work.

He brought to life

our spiritual corpse.

We had no part in this.

Verse 8,

By grace you've been saved

through faith,

and this is not your own doing.

And this refers to both

the grace by which

you've been saved

and the faith

that connects us

to that grace.

We didn't even have it in us

to work up the faith

to act towards God.

Both the grace that saves

and the faith

that by his grace

connects us to his grace

is not our doing.

It is the gift of God.

It is not the result

of our works,

my works,

my dead,

duped,

doomed works

so that no one may boast.

Friends,

are our eyes open

to this wonder?

Are our eyes open

to this wonder?

Do you see how stunning

this work of grace

is in your life?

But we need to know

how we are saved

a bit more.

We need to know

the mechanics of salvation.

What was it he did?

How did he make

wrath magnets

love magnets?

How did that happen?

Did he just change

his mind on a whim?

Well, I hope not

because he might

change it back

on a whim.

Of course he did.

Did he begin

to recalibrate

his feelings

of appalled

abhorrence

towards our rebellion?

Did he begin

to sort of just

move things

that were crimes

into not being crimes?

Did he decriminalize

some stuff

just to give us

a bit of a pass?

No.

He achieved

something stunning

in and by his son,

the Lord Jesus.

He treated us

with love,

he gifted us

with life,

and he seated

us with Christ.

There's the third answer,

verse 6.

This is how he did it.

He raised us up

with him

and seated us

with him

in the heavenly places

in Christ Jesus.

Now this is

theological shorthand.

Paul expects us

to remember

what he's already said.

God didn't just

make us alive.

He didn't just

gift us with life.

Notice verse 5.

Even when we were

dead in our trespasses,

he made us alive

together with Christ.

Together with Christ.

There is something here

about the way

that he has connected us

to his son,

the Lord Jesus,

that makes this gift

of life a reality

for us.

Why did his son,

the Lord Jesus,

need to be made alive

as well?

Why did he need

to be made alive?

Well, remember

chapter 1,

what you've already seen.

Chapter 1, verse 6,

to the praise

of his glorious grace,

with which he has

blessed us

in the beloved.

That's Jesus.

In him,

we have redemption

through his blood,

meaning through

his blood shed,

meaning through

the giving of his life,

through his death.

We have redemption

through his blood,

through his death,

the forgiveness

of our trespasses,

according to the riches

of his grace,

which he lavished upon us

in all wisdom

and insight.

God sent his perfect son,

who was entirely alive

to him,

unlike me,

who's dead to him,

who was never duped

by Satan,

unlike me,

who was entirely unworthy

of God's wrath,

unlike me,

and he sent his son

to join us

in death

by bearing our sin,

the awful offense

of it on the cross,

and bearing the wrath

of God for it

on the cross.

Listen to this little poem

written by

Lance Pibworth.

You may not have heard

of him,

but listen to this.

All my sin of every kind,

all the thoughts

that stain the mind,

all the evils

I design,

laid on him.

All the ways

my feet have strayed,

all the idols

I have made,

all the times

I have not prayed,

laid on him.

All the told

and acted lies.

All success

and all the tries,

sins that I legitimize,

laid on him.

All that sinks me

in the mire,

all the times

of base desire,

all that needs

a cleansing fire,

laid on him.

All my misdirected powers,

all my many wasted hours,

all my dreams

of ivory towers,

laid on him.

All that makes

my spirit cold,

all that keeps me

from the fold,

all that dims

my father's gold,

laid on him.

All the times

I've grieved the spirit,

all the nature

I inherit,

all the punishment

I merit,

laid on him,

laid on him,

God's own dear son,

laid on him,

the holy one,

blotting out

the noonday sun.

when laid on him.

That's the reality

of what happened.

That's why Jesus

had to be raised

from death,

because that's the death

he died.

And we already know

chapter one,

what is the immeasurable

greatness of his power

towards us who believe,

according to the working

of his great might.

Verse 20,

are you following?

that he worked in Christ

when he raised him

from the dead

and seated him

at his right hand

in the heavenly places.

Job done.

Forever.

God's wrath

satisfied

because it was laid

on him,

poured out on him.

His love for sinners

upheld

so the wrath

magnets

could become

love magnets

because the wrath

was transferred

onto Jesus.

And the perfection

of the Lord Jesus

was put onto those

who would put their

trust in him,

who were awakened

to have the faith

to trust in his grace.

That's us

if we're in him.

And so his death

was my death.

His grave

was my grave.

His resurrection

will be my resurrection.

And when he sits

in glory

at the right hand

of the Father,

he makes it possible

for me one day

to sit in glory

at the right hand

of the Father.

So in effect,

now that has happened

because he has done

everything for me.

Everything that he's done

is what has been done

in the name of those

who trust in him

by his grace.

And therefore,

because God has raised him

and seated him

at his right hand,

that's us.

Who are there,

a man in the glory,

keeping our seat.

No social distancing.

So we're saved

by our union

in death

and resurrection

and kingly reign

with the Lord Jesus.

Now as we close

this morning,

why are we saved?

Why we need saved,

how we are saved,

why we're saved.

Very briefly,

two reasons

that this passage gives us.

A future reason

and a present reason.

The future reason

is verse 7.

So that in the coming ages

he might show the kindness,

sorry,

show the immeasurable riches

of his grace

and kindness towards us

in Christ Jesus.

It's amazing, isn't it,

how Ephesians takes us

from eternity past

when we were chosen in Christ

before the foundation

of the world

to eternity to come.

Verse 7 just about explains

why everything is

the way it is.

It is so that

in the coming ages

he might show

the immeasurable riches,

immeasurable riches

of his grace

and kindness

towards us

in Christ Jesus.

Our eternal,

ever-increasing delight

and satisfaction

will be in him.

That's why we're saved.

God wants people

to be able to

adore that forever

and flourish in that.

And it's not just

that we won't get tired of it.

You know how sometimes

you go to somewhere lovely

and the person who lives there

in a beautiful place

they tell you

how every morning

they get up

and they open the curtains

and they see the view

and they say,

I never tire of it.

Well, that's a lovely thing.

But this picture here

in verse 7

is not just saying

don't worry,

you'll never tire of it.

It's saying the opposite.

It's saying

you will never cease

to be increasingly

thrilled by it

for all of eternity

because it's immeasurable.

Why are we saved?

We're saved for his glory.

And we are most,

most happy

when he is glorified.

We are fed

and nourished

and satisfied

eternally.

Every longing

satisfied.

Everything we long for now

that we are sure

is not found in God

when we get to glory

we'll find it was

always found in God.

Why are we saved?

Verse 7

the eternal perspective

and then verse 10

the present thing.

Where is workmanship?

Interesting,

at the end of verse 9

not saved by works

so that no one can boast.

It's almost as though

Paul says now.

Funnily enough,

talking about works,

talking about works

that don't save you.

We are his workmanship.

We are the output

of God's work.

He had some corpses

and not only

were they spiritual corpses,

they were duped.

They were completely

in the thrall

of Satan

and demonic forces.

and they were doomed.

They were under

my wrath,

says God,

and I had this mess.

And now look,

they're going to spend forever.

Magnify my son,

glorying in

my eternal kindness to them.

We are his workmanship.

But he has work

cut out for us.

Notice verse 10.

Created in Christ Jesus

for good works

which God prepared beforehand

that we should walk in them.

You know that phrase,

you've got your work

cut out for you.

Well,

God has got your work

cut out for you,

sisters and brothers.

If you belong to him,

if this gospel is yours,

if this experience is yours,

if you read this this morning

and hear this

unpacked and say,

yeah,

that's me,

that's exactly

what God has done.

If he's begun

to open your eyes again to it,

there's work for you

to do now.

And we're told

in this passage

that we're saved by grace

and we're also told

that we serve by grace.

There's work to do.

But the work

does not

pay God off

for his grace to us.

The work that we do

for him

is by his grace.

It is as though

if I take out

my debit card,

I wouldn't do this

in Aberdeen,

but I'll do it in Edinburgh.

I'll take the risk.

I'll take out my debit card.

It's as though

rather than me

trying to do things

for God

to pay him

and to respond to him

for what he's done,

I'm actually putting myself

further in his debt

because the bill

goes to him

every month

for the grace

that I need

to serve him.

And he delights

to pay it.

He doesn't hold me

accountable for that.

So we're saved

by grace.

I'll now put this

carefully away.

We're saved by grace

and we serve

by grace.

And God has good works

prepared for us.

We just need to rescue

that as we close from,

we need to rescue

good works

from the bad books,

don't we?

Isn't it strange

that we live in a world

where being a do-gooder

is a negative thing?

But it has that kind

of horrible,

prickly person

who thinks they're

better than everybody else

and goes through life

doing good

to make it look

how good they are,

to show their own goodness.

That's not what

this is about.

That's not gospel good works.

As you crack on

through the book

of Ephesians,

especially when you get

to chapter four,

to the end of it

you're going to see

a list

of supernatural

ways to live,

being kind

to one another,

forgiving one another,

submitting to one another,

husbands and wives,

children and parents,

and slaves and masters,

employees and employers,

and all the rest of it

that's there.

That's what Paul's

pointing to

in Embryo now.

And when you get there,

maybe you'll remember

that we're as workmanship,

we're created in Christ Jesus

for good works

that God prepared beforehand

that we should walk

in them.

So my friends,

I'm finishing now.

And I wonder

where you are

with this this morning

as we draw it to a close.

I wonder,

have you seen that

just as I came in

this morning

and was asked,

have you any

COVID symptoms?

And I was gladly

able to say,

no I don't.

But I wonder

some of the other

symptoms of the whole season.

Are you beginning

to find your eyes

growing dim with cataract

towards the Lord

and what he's done

and what he is doing?

Your heart growing cold

towards him.

It's interesting

that the whole book

ends like this.

Grace be with all

who love our Lord Jesus Christ

with a love

incorruptible.

Incorruptible.

that can't be corrupted

by all that life

can throw at it

to take our eyes

off the ball.

May that be true of us.

And for anyone

who doesn't know

the Lord Jesus

this morning

who by his grace

might recognize

themselves

in this passage

because of the fact

that,

because of what

Paul says here,

that the potential

is amazing.

you're now listening

to someone

who was by nature

an object of wrath

like the rest

of mankind.

I once was lost

but now I'm found.

I was blind

but now I see

and that can happen

to you.

And if you sense

that God is

doing a work

in your heart,

if you sense

that there is

just the beginnings

of a stirring,

then by his grace

get hold of that.

and move towards

the Lord Jesus

for salvation.

Father,

please,

we pray,

help us,

have mercy on us.

We so easily

become calcified.

We so easily

become dead

and blind

to the wonders

of what you've done.

We so easily

become enthralled

by nothing

of any lasting

consequence.

We lose our

footing.

Our hearts

grow cold

towards you.

Please rekindle

in us

by the eyes

of our hearts

being enlightened

to see these things.

For the glory

of our Savior

we ask it.

Amen.

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